Remote Only • Hacker News Board

Re: Remote Only

#81

Post by piotrkaminski » Thu, Jun 07, 2018, 2:09 AM UTC

ozten wrote: post #24

hartator wrote: post #6

> Disadvantages > Scares investors - Scares some partners - Scares some customers - Scares some potential employees, mostly senior non-technical hires - Onboarding is harder, first month feels lonely We do a full remote policy at SerpApi.com, however I found this disadvantages list a bit dishonest, they are more way numerous and important, the most obvious are missing real human contacts (and it doesn't get easier wi…

Another disadvantage of global employees is the overhead of understanding employment law, taxes, etc for each of your employees' countries and/or provinces. Having clusters of remote workers, perhaps there is a sweet spot.

This seems more like an opportunity for a company to come in and handle those details for you. I believe those exist already but they seem mostly targeted at larger multinationals rather than scrappy remote-only startups.

Re: Remote Only

#82

Post by bmelton » Thu, Jun 07, 2018, 2:10 AM UTC

chpmrc wrote: post #31

baddox wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think it’s very detrimental if you have a separate room or area of your home that is only used for your remote work.

That surely helps but at the end of the day it depends on your personality. Some people can go a lot longer working completely alone (e.g. if you have a family), others prefer working in a more social environment (e.g. solo travellers), at least occasionally. I definitely prefer the latter.

I've worked exclusively remotely for a number of years, and while I tend to prefer it, there are times where I miss the hustle and bustle of an office place.

For those occasions, I've always just relocated to either a coffee shop (or similar) or a co-working space with drop-in rates. If you're extremely rural, or those aren't options, I don't know what to tell you.

Re: Remote Only

#83

Post by purplezooey » Thu, Jun 07, 2018, 2:12 AM UTC

This is good but impractical. Many workplaces are full of jackasses who don't care about the rules, and are not going to take the extra effort of saving a screenshot to meeting notes to help out the remote guy/people. Instead this person will happily subtly disadvantage the remote people just because it makes him/her look one shade better. There are lots of these types out there, i.e. those that think middle school politics is the name of the game. So manifestos like this are of little practical value.

Re: Remote Only

#84

Post by jfaat » Thu, Jun 07, 2018, 2:12 AM UTC

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #17

warcher wrote: post #11

Yo, you gotta tell me when you’re working. You must. You’re on a team that is depending on you and somebody has to know where the fuck your are and when you’re going to fix whatever is broken today. “Where’s will?” “I don’t know, our manifesto says nobody gets to know when he’s working.” “Well he broke the site.” “That’s his right as a sovereign citizen.” The end.

The corollary here is that if nobody knows when you're working, people will always expect you to work. That whole work/life balance thing depends on having clearly denoted "working time" and "not working time".

I guess, but even as an on-site employee if production breaks because of me and I’m not in the office, I’ll still get pinged 10/10 times

Re: Remote Only

#85

Post by mattnewport » Thu, Jun 07, 2018, 2:16 AM UTC

purplezooey wrote: post #83

This is good but impractical. Many workplaces are full of jackasses who don't care about the rules, and are not going to take the extra effort of saving a screenshot to meeting notes to help out the remote guy/people. Instead this person will happily subtly disadvantage the remote people just because it makes him/her look one shade better. There are lots of these types out there, i.e. those that think middle school p…

I think this site is aimed at remote only / remote first companies where this particular problem should be less of an issue.

Re: Remote Only

#86

Post by iandanforth » Thu, Jun 07, 2018, 2:18 AM UTC

hartator wrote: post #6

> Disadvantages > Scares investors - Scares some partners - Scares some customers - Scares some potential employees, mostly senior non-technical hires - Onboarding is harder, first month feels lonely We do a full remote policy at SerpApi.com, however I found this disadvantages list a bit dishonest, they are more way numerous and important, the most obvious are missing real human contacts (and it doesn't get easier wi…

This is a valid criticism of the list. Please submit an issue for further discussion!

https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/www-remoteonly-org/issues/

Re: Remote Only

#87

Post by rmgraham » Thu, Jun 07, 2018, 2:22 AM UTC

JamyDev wrote: post #62

Didn't see anyone top level mention it, but: Disadvantages -> Timezones Timezones make scheduling team meetings hard, and if your organization ever becomes big enough to warrant a physical office people far away will start working late hours to keep up with the main office. YMMV, but it's 3 AM here in Berlin and until 10 minutes ago I was still actively working.

I've been full-time remote for just shy of 5 years and timezones is definitely an issue. Up to 4 hour difference is sustainable indefinitely, 8 hours can be with the right people (doing split days is great for this), but beyond 8 hours and the amount of effort required for synchronous communication (video calls) causes it to not happen and the team loses cohesion.

You need the synchronous communication to have non-work conversations, and you need those non-work conversations to develop and maintain the relationships required (trust, rapport, etc.) for remote work.

> if your organization ever becomes big enough to warrant a physical office

...then you probably don't have enough buy-in to be a fully remote company and that is far harder to work around than timezones.

Re: Remote Only

#88

Post by iandanforth » Thu, Jun 07, 2018, 2:24 AM UTC

warcher wrote: post #11

Yo, you gotta tell me when you’re working. You must. You’re on a team that is depending on you and somebody has to know where the fuck your are and when you’re going to fix whatever is broken today. “Where’s will?” “I don’t know, our manifesto says nobody gets to know when he’s working.” “Well he broke the site.” “That’s his right as a sovereign citizen.” The end.

I think this is a valid and important point, especially as this is aimed at #1 on their list of 'practical tips.' The item in question isn't even really a practical tip. You should submit an issue that suggests a real practical tip for how people can be both flexible with their time and available in urgent situations.

Re: Remote Only

#89

Post by otoburb » Thu, Jun 07, 2018, 2:26 AM UTC

Barbie_GitLab wrote: post #59

mey wrote: post #47

From a legal/hr/pay role perspective, how do you hire full time around the world?

It is pretty complex, but we have some information in our handbook. https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/

Gitlab, thank you for posting your handbook that can be reviewed transparently ahead of time by prospective hires.

The complexity of hiring in various countries and jurisdictions is often completely under appreciated by anybody who hasn't had to set up or wind down an entity. GitLab's page[1] gives a flavour of the machinations required to for a legal entity that represents your company to process payroll and adhere to local and regional labour, tax and medical insurance regulations and practices.

I'm very appreciate of companies committed to remote work, especially more so when they are receptive to hiring international staff due to the extra non-trivial administrative overhead required.

[1] https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/people-operations/global-c...

Re: Remote Only

#90

Post by mattnewport » Thu, Jun 07, 2018, 2:27 AM UTC

keithnz wrote: post #37

I'd be interested to know some long term remote workers experiences with regards to interruptions. It's one of the things that I believe would be better. In many places I've worked I tend to become a "go to" person which results in many many interruptions, it doesn't make too much difference how much you write down, it's usually always quicker to just ask someone who you know knows the answer to whatever question you…

My experience is that it's a lot better but that Slack can be the biggest remaining source of interruptions. I still struggle to find the balance between being sufficiently available on Slack and getting focused uninterrupted work done.